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Allow users to increase size of more UI elements #2306
Description
Describe the new feature
We often use DB Browser to introduce students to SQL in classes. When demoing DB Browser in person, it's quite easy to zoom in on the UI (as via macOS's built-in Accessibility controls) so that students can see aspects of the UI more easily on a projector screen.
But for online classes (both now and also before the pandemic), it's harder for students to see aspects of the UI, particularly, even when sharing just DB Browser's window via, e.g., Zoom. If an instructor zooms in on the UI on their machine (as via macOS's same built-in Accessibility controls), the zooming only happens on their side; what students see via the shared screen is unchanged. A workaround is for the instructor to change their resolution (e.g., to 720p or even lower), but that then sacrifices quite a bit of screen real estate on their end.
We do mitigate this somewhat by increasing DB Browser's font size, but that only seems to affect the cells under Browse Data. The Database Structure tab (where we spend a good amount of time in class) remains unchanged. By contrast, browsers make it quite easy to grow all UI elements at once, as via command-minus or -plus.
I suspect this is easier said than done UI-wise, given DB Browser's cross-platform design, but if there were a mechanism to magnify the size of all UI elements, that would be terrific for class. Alternatively, even just allowing users to increase the font size of the text in the Database Structure tab would be a big help.
Thank you for a wonderful teaching tool!
Additional info
Please answer these questions before submitting your feature request.
Is your feature request related to an issue? Please include the issue number.
Similar in spirit to #2016 but a more generalized idea.
Does this feature exist in another product or project?
E.g., Chrome.
Do you have a screenshot? Please add screenshots to help explain your idea.
default font size
with font size increased
Activity
justinclift commentedon Jun 27, 2020
Yeah, we're probably overdue to go through the Preferences tab and make sure we have a setting there for every element in the UI.
It's probably good timing to raise this now, as @MKleusberg is thinking through how to redesign the UI anyway (eg allow multiple browsing panes, etc) in #2283. 😄
MKleusberg commentedon Jul 8, 2020
@dmalan Would a general option for increasing the size of all text do? That would be very easy to implement but obviously enlarge not only the more important text e.g. in the Database Structure view but also all the menu items.
dmalan commentedon Jul 8, 2020
Hi @MKleusberg, @justinclift, thanks so much for considering. I imagine that would do the trick, @MKleusberg, so long as it wouldn't break any UI elements (e.g., buttons or column headings or such). For our own classroom use, we pretty much spend all of our time using:
So anything that scales all text visible in those UI panels would likely prove a big help! Thanks so much.
Add more options for setting font sizes
MKleusberg commentedon Jul 9, 2020
Hi @dmalan! Can you give the next nightly build a try? You can download it here tomorrow. It adds two more options to the Preferences dialog. The first is
Database structure font sizewhich you can find in theDatabasetab and which changes the font size of the tree view in the Database Structure tab. The second is the generalFont sizewhich you can find in theGeneraltab which changes the font size of all elements in the UI for which there are no other font size options.So in theory you should be able to the the structure, data, and SQL font sizes separately to some value which suits your needs. And if needed you can then increase the font size of the rest of the UI a bit too. Let me know if it works for you or if you want to configure anything else 😄
nadler commentedon Jul 25, 2020
I was also interested in increasing font size, in particular the font in the results log of Execute SQL as that remains small after increasing all the fonts I can. I tried to run the Mac OS nightly build from Jul 24 23:18 but the OS said it was corrupt.
justinclift commentedon Jul 26, 2020
@nadler Would you be ok to screenshot the error message about that corruption?
We should be able to fix it, but need to know the exact details. 😄
dmalan commentedon Jul 26, 2020
Hi @MKleusberg, so sorry for the belated reply. The new option is great. Thanks so much. Though did the default font sizes perhaps change since that option's introduction? As best I can tell, it looks like the default font size for Database Structure and Browse Data is now smaller (10pt)? Might it make sense for the default to be closer to, e.g., 14pt, to match the other UI elements?
10pt currently:
14pt, for example:
nadler commentedon Jul 31, 2020
I tried again with the Jul 30 build and it ran. And even better, the font changes are fantastic! Thanks so much!
justinclift commentedon Jul 31, 2020
Awesome. 😄
nadler commentedon Aug 4, 2020
Using the Jul 30 build some more, one or more of these font size settings don't seem to save. After adjusting them I saw the font sizes change. Then quitting and restarting the application still shows the values I changed, but I'm not seeing fonts in that size. The first picture is the text after I've changed my preferences. The second is after restarting the application.
mgrojo commentedon Aug 4, 2020
@nadler Are you using macos? I think some people reported a problem in saving preferences. Could you check the value of the font sizes in the Preferences dialog?
nadler commentedon Aug 5, 2020
I am using Mac OS X (10.15.6). The value was correct in the preferences dialog after the restart, but it wasn't using the value that was shown in the preferences. Modifying the value again caused it to work.
justinclift commentedon Aug 6, 2020
Ahhhh. That sounds like there's a bug in our code where the saved preferences are first loaded from disk then applied.
Add more options for setting font sizes